Schedule of Events

Saturday, September 1: Festivaliberación begins the mobilization! There are many great workshops being planned, and an amazing concert at night featuring local artists, Jasiri X, and Rebel Diaz. Check out this great video Jasiri X just recorded to help get the word out!

And we’ve got some exciting news: the Undocubus will also be arriving at the festival in the evening and joining us for the march the next day! You won’t want to miss this!

Sunday, September 2: Thousands will flood the streets of Charlotte for the March on Wall Street South, beginning at 11am in Frazier Park. We’ll march together at 1pm to the big banks, and past the sites where the Democratic National Convention will meet during the week. We say: YES to jobs, housing, healthcare, education, the environment, workers rights and justice, NO to wars, cutbacks, racism and bigotry, and deportations.

The main targets of the march include Bank of America’s world headquarters, Wells Fargo’s eastern headquarters, the Time Warner Cable Arena, and the Bank of America Stadium. Additionally, there will be two stops along the route for a peoples’ tribunal and speak out against these banks and corporations. We’ll stop in front of the international headquarters of Bank of America and hear from people who have been directly impacted by home foreclosures, student debt, and BofA’s bankrolling of the private prison system, war, and environmental destruction. Then, we’ll stop in front of the headquarters of Duke Energy. We’ll hear from folks impacted by Duke’s funding of dirty energy, and how Duke funds the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the right-wing bill mill.

Monday, September 3, 1pm: We’ll join the Labor Day Parade in the morning, and gather in the afternoon for the historic Southern Workers Assembly, starting at 1pm at Wedgewood Baptist Church. More info on the Southern Workers Assembly:

The Southern working class must encourage our workers and organizations to have an independent presence at the Democratic National Convention as an opportunity to discuss, plan and organize around our own working class needs and struggles for independent political action as we continue to challenge Right-To-Work (for less) & Taft-Hartley laws, low wages, denial of collective bargaining, and workers’ human rights connected with the historical demands against the South’s legacy of Jim Crow laws, anti-immigrant scapegoating and racism.

The Southern region is the least unionized region in the country. NC is the single least unionized state and is home of Wall Street South as headquarters of Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank East with the largest concentration of finance capital outside NYC. Workers must let the big banks, corporations and both parties know that we as workers will continue building our powerful Southern movement that addresses our needs as workers and not corporate greed! Enough is enough! We will Organize, Unionize and fightback!

Wednesday, September 5, 6-10pm:UndocuNation in North Carolina, an artist showcase organized by CultureStrike and the Center for New Community at the Neighborhood Theatre (511 E. 36th Street)

September 4 -6: Affinity group and other actions

Convergence Space

The new convergence space is now open at Area 15 (514 E. 15th St, at the corner of North Davidson and 15th Sts)! We’ve been hard at work getting it all set up and ready for all the folks that will be traveling to Charlotte for the March on Wall Street South and the other actions around the DNC. For those coming into town looking to get involved, the convergence space is the place to go to get plugged in and get active.

March Contingents

Many groups and organizations have been collaborating to pull together dynamic, struggle-based contingents during the March on Wall Street South. At the march, each contingent will have an identifying banner and signs to find them and march together. Here are the contingents that will be marching with us:

Youth and Students (including Stop the School to Prison Pipeline section)

Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad (including No War/No Warming, anti-drone, and Free All Political Prisoners sections)

Program

We have a very exciting program of speakers and cultural performers from across NC, the South, and the U.S. working on a range of struggles. Here’s a few of the freedom fighters who will be joining us at the March:

Yen Alcala, Occupy Charlotte

Farm Labor Organizing Committee

Cindy Foster, President of the Southern Piedmont Central Labor Council

Jaribu Hill, Mississippi Workers Center

the Undocubus

Efia Nwangaza, Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination

John Heuer, Veterans for Peace

Monica Embrey, Greenpeace

Larry Hales, Peoples Power Assembly

Fernando Figueroa, Coalition to March on the RNC

Larry Holmes, Peoples Power Assembly

Clarence Thomas, ILWU 100

Rev. CD Witherspoon, Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Victor Toro, May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrants Rights

Sarah Shanks, Charlotte Clinic Defense

Marilyn Levin, United National Antiwar Coalition
and more!

See here for more information on volunteering, tabling, public transportation, posters, and lots more!

Next month, help us fulfill the dream of economic justice for everyone!

As you read this, the whirring machinery of mass media is increasingly focusing the spotlight on Romney, Obama and the spectacle of elections.

A lot will be decided this November but almost none of it where the public can see. We receive an endless stream of TV commercials funded by SuperPac billionaires in lieu of a true democratic discourse. The 99% is left in the wake of campaign commercials acting as currency for both the candidates and the media charged with covering them for us.

If you want to have the greatest impact on our democracy, cast your ballot on September 17th - in the streets. Join us.

Our mass mobilization of the 99% on September 15 - 17 is coming up soon. And as it was when OWS first began, the most impactful way to help is to show up, do your thing and help all our voices be heard!

Below you will find a series of actions and events building up to S17 as well as planning meetings and conference calls where you could help organize the litany of S17 festivities throughout the weekend. You can also check out the Occupy Classifieds for immediate needs leading up to our one year anniversary. Have a great idea? Make it so!

S17 Affinity Spokes
Friday, August 31st, 6pm
Foley Square
Come to the affinity group spokescouncil to plan actions on the birthday of Occupy Wall Street, September 17th. An affinity group is a group of friends or family. Its a group of people you trust. Its also a group that shares a political or tactical goal. 5pm: Trainings on affinity groups: learn more about how to form an affinity group. 6pm: Spokescouncil begins

Occupy Dance
Every Saturday and Wednesday, 7pm
The Wall Street Bull, 1 Bowling Green
Help build momentum leading up to September 17 on join Occupy Dance in a peaceful protest at the Wall Street bull. Join us as we celebrate the iconic image of the ballerina on the bull and exercise our freedom of expression. All are welcome to join in a full ballet warm up and creative practice.

S17 Convergence Planning
Saturday, September 1st, 2pm
The Garibaldi Statue at Washington Square Park, 1 Washington Square
Join us for our fourth meeting for planning convergence components for September 17th and the preceding weekend (September 15-16). Check out the schedule we’ve developed and look for the OWS Orientation Banner!

S17 Work Sprint
Sunday, September 2nd, Noon - 4pm
33 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn
Come join teams from across OWS as we work on all the exciting stuff that needs doing for S17: websites, volunteer coordination, calendar updates, prep for the Monday Spokes meeting and anything else. Please email services@s17nyc.org for location and further information.

S17 Coordination Meeting
Monday, September 3rd, 6pm - 9pm
Judson Memorial Church, Washington Square Park South
Interested in planning or plugging in to S17 activities? Come and bring your creative juices so we can make an amazing cocktail of a weekend celebrating a new chapter of Occupy!

National Planning Call for September 17th
Tuesday, September 4th, 7pm
Location: Your phone
Join occupiers nation-wide through InterOccupy as we organize for the big day. Pass on the plans from your city to date (estimate numbers interested in coming if there was free transport, solidarity actions, etc), and help us help you best plug into any available resources.

The Crushing Burden of Debt
Tuesday, September 4th, 7pm
McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince Street
76% of Americans are in serious debt. At least 1 in 7 is already being pursued by debt collectors. Median household debt in America has risen to $75,600, and much of it can never be repaid in our lifetimes. Credit was supposed to help us realize our dreams. Instead, predatory lenders are rapidly closing off the opportunities that a democracy ought to nurture. Panel members will discuss the consequences, and the possibilities for debt resistance.

The Coalition to March on Wall Street South condemns the arrest earlier this afternoon of 4 undocumented people in Tennessee. Two of the people arrested — Maria Huerta and Alejandro Guizar — were riders on the No Papers No Fear bus. The other two arrested — Marciela Lou and Frances Ashley — are from Knoxville, TN. The four performed a civil disobedience action with a banner that says “No Papers No Fear” outside the Sheriff’s office.

The No Papers No Fear bus left Phoenix, Arizona on July 29 and has been traveling across the country to arrive in Charlotte in time for actions before and during the Democratic National Convention. They are scheduled to arrive in Charlotte on Saturday, September 1 and will be speaking around 8pm at the Festivaliberacion at Area 15 (514 E. 15th St). They will also be speaking and organizing a No Papers No Fear contingent in the March on Wall Street South on Sunday, September 2 at 11am at Frazier Park.

The Coalition to March on Wall Street South calls for the immediate release of the 4 people arrested today. We urge all those who stand for justice to sign and circulate the petition demanding their release, to call Sherriff Jones at 865-971-3901 to demand that the four not be turned over to ICE, to make a donation to the bail fund, and to take action to support the No Papers No Fears riders.

See here for more information, to donate to their bail fund, and find out how to help get them released!

You are cordially invited to an open forum to discuss and practice the "People's Wall" action for the morning of September 17th.

5 PM, Liberty Square (aka Zuccotti Park)
Wednesday, August 29th

The morning of September 17th will begin with a gathering at the intersections immediately surrounding the New York Stock Exchange. Each intersection will feature performers and open public speak outs, followed by a mass sit-in.

TODAY, August 29th, at 5pm, we will talk about and practice the planned action. We will illustrate the ways that individuals can choose to participate: either by taking part in the planned civil disobedience directly, or by safely supporting those who choose to put their bodies on the line. We will be recruiting to fill brief but essential roles in this mass action: tactical roles, videographers, performers, observers. We hope that by working together we can create a clear, powerful platform for our many voices to be heard.

We need you to come help us plan and coordinate the movement and participation of our community for this event. We're organizing this day as an opportunity to collaborate. We need your help to host the members of the 99% from New York and around the country for a morning Occupying Wall Street together.

Occupy Wall Street and our allies have brought to the attention of the world that Wall Street, and finance capitalism broadly speaking, are at the root of many social ills: environmental destruction, manipulation of the political process, the prison-industrial complex, the surveillance state. It seems that if you follow the money, no matter what issue concerns you… All Roads Lead to Wall Street.

On September 17th, when the whole world will once again be watching, we plan to make these connections crystal clear in a disciplined and powerful civil disobedience. We intend to create an empowering space for participants to deliver their own messages about why they demand an end to Wall Street's devastating influence on our government, our environment, and our lives

Please join us to plan and practice the action, and to spread the message that not only is another world possible, but that we are here to demand it, together. (Future training sessions will be scheduled, so don't worry if you miss out on this one. There will be many opportunities to help build the People's Wall.)

As of noon eastern, the March on the RNC has begun. The corporate media won't report on it, so follow and find livestreams on Twitter: #resistRNC #marchontheRNC #OccupyTheRNC #frnc, @OccupyRNC and @OccupyTampa. The protest will continue throughout the week. Nonviolent direct action marches will take place every day at 10 am as an alternative to the official, barbed-wire enclosed “event zone” (cage) declared by the city and police to keep protesters far away from the eyes of the media, while the wealthy are given lavish parties and the ears of the politicians inside the heavily-guarded walls.

Tomorrow at 5 pm, there will be a Rally and March Against Voter Suppression at Centennial Park (1800 E. 8th Ave, Tampa), and several other actions will be held at various times during the rest of the week, including a pro-labor rally, a rally in support of reproductive rights, and various autonomous/unpermitted marches against capitalism and police brutality. If you are in Tampa and need legal assistance, the number for the NLG is 813-241-0101, or find them online: http://tampa.nlg.org. You can also donate to the Occupy Tampa bail fund here.

Activists including the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, organizers of the Romneyville encampment in Tampa, stopping a foreclosure on Saturday

Video of the March on the RNC

People at Occupy Tampa for the Food Not Bombs World Gathering

Protesters gathered at the HQ of Raytheon, makers of parts for drones

The Earth First! contingent

CodePink contingent

The city spent tens of millions of dollars on police equipment, including a tank, surveillance drones, and helicopters, with reinforcements from the Dept. of Homeland Security and National Guard

Police in what look like military fatigues following the main march

Protesters were kept far away from the convention and from media by barriers like this one, meaning reporters had to travel long distances to cover the actions or talk to demonstrators

Video of banner drop directed at Scott Walker at Tampa Theatre
Press release from protest group resistRNC to law enforcement:

Those who come to demonstrate at the RNC do not come to confront you. They come to confront:

those who give you your orders, our Elected Officials.

those who give them their orders, the Power Elite.

We, police officers and protesters alike, should be standing together to remind our government that they work for us, the people. That it is WE THE PEOPLE who elect them, and we who give them their orders.

You have been told that we are coming to commit acts of violence and destruction. We are not. We utilize peaceful means to promote peaceful ends and to stand up for justice...social, economic and environmental justice.

You have been told that we are coming to fight the police. We are not. You are being abused right along with us. It is the Power Elite we are after. They are screwing over all of us and laugh at us when we fight one another.

We do not expect you to take our word for it. Hear it from retired Police Captain Ray Lewis on his interview where he can explain it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ndFTALQzlY It's time we stood together. We know who the real enemy is, and its neither you or us. So it's pointless to fight one another.

If you are ordered to assault a non-violent peaceful crowd, we ask you to defy your orders. Stand for justice. It is our sincere hope that you allow the demonstrators to do what they come to do, peacefully protest an unjust system. We stand for justice.